A delay in the development of speech in a child can be noticed even in the first months of life – normally, up to six months, the child masters syllables, and by the year his vocabulary is 5-10 words. This was told socialbites.ca by Professor Leonid Chutko, head of the Center for Behavioral Neurology, head of the laboratory for correction of mental development and adaptation of the Human Brain Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“It is striking that babbling is absent or limited at an early age. The first words and phrases appear late. Parents note the silence, characterizing the children as understanding, but unwilling to talk. Instead of speech, facial expressions and gestures are actively developing. In the future, speech appears with a delay, but the vocabulary is still weak, ”she explained.
Chutko added that for such children there are typical errors when coordinating parts of speech by situation, number and gender. This may include abbreviated pronunciation of words, misuse, or lack of grammatical features. Prefixes and suffixes are either not used at all or are used incorrectly.
“It must be said that the development of speech in a child begins not with the appearance of words, but much earlier. Thus, at the age of 2-3 months, cooing occurs. At the age of 6 months, babbling occurs, which is combinations of consonants with vowels. The most common ones are “ma-ma-ma”, “ba-ba-ba” etc. The first syllables are formed. At the age of 10-12 months, the first meaningful words emerge from two identical syllables (“father”, “mother”, “woman”). At the end of 1 year, his vocabulary reaches 5-10 words. That’s why doctors always ask: how did the child communicate in the first year? Chutko recorded.
For more information on how to prevent speech delay in a child and why it is dangerous not to treat it, see material “socialbites.ca”.